Various medical imaging devices have been used to track a lesion of a patient. For example, a computed tomography (CT) device may be used to acquire a lesion and a component based on a horizontal cross section of a body. Also, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device may be used to acquire a lesion and a component from a medical image of a desired cross section obtained through, for example, transverse imaging, coronal imaging, and sagittal imaging.
In recent years, it is possible to extract specific lesion area from a medical image by computer vision technology. The technique may include, for example, a technique for extracting only a blood vessel or a tumor and a technique for displaying a composite image of only a skull bone.
A general medical image may simply display a specific body area and thus, a diagnosis of a lesion area or reading medical image must be performed by a medical staff. Such reading process may derive subjective results depending on individual medical staff and the radiology report may be inconsistent. Also, when recording the medical information, medical terminology codes have to be assigned manually. However, the number of codes in standard terminology system is enormous and such terminology system tends to be updated over time. Thus, lots of time and efforts may be required for finding and updating diagnosis name codes in the medical information system.
Also, with the development of medical imaging devices and computing technology, a use of three-dimensional (3D) medical image is also increasing. However, a development of a technique for assigning a diagnosis and medical terminology code corresponding to a 3D medical image may be insufficient.
Accordingly, there is a desire for a method and apparatus for automatically displaying a diagnosis name and assigning medical terminology code of a lesion extracted from a medical image corresponding to a 2D image or a 3D image.